In the packaging of comestibles and other substances, e.g. dairy products, in a liquid or pasty or semi-pasty state in individual cup-shaped containers, it is a common practice to provide a continuous endless conveyor which is provided with cup receptables in parallel rows extending in the direction of displacement of the conveyor and transverse rows running perpendicular to this direction. At the discharge station along the path of the conveyor, a cup-removal device is provided and can comprise gripper means with grippers having two spreadable gripper halves which are relatively shiftable. Below the row of grippers, there is provided a lifting device for raising the cups out of the receptacles in the conveyer and into engagement with the grippers.
In an apparatus of this type, particularly for the packaging of dairy products in a liquid or semi-paste consistency, e.g. yogurt, the individual cups are inserted into the individual receptacles of the conveyor at a cup-supplying station. The cups are then carried stepwise through a pre-dosing station in which fruit or other materials may be initially added to the cups, e.g. in the case in which fruit yogurt is packaged. Thereafter, the cup is introduced into a main filling station in which the remainder of the filling is introduced into each cup, a cover-application station, a sealing station in which the cover is fastened in place, a printing station at which various indicia may be printed upon the package, e.g. to indicate the expiration of the shelf life thereof, and the cup-removal station described above.
The cup-supply station, the pre-dosing station, the main feeding station, the cover-application station and the printing station, as well as the sealing station, generally require mechanical elements for cooperation with the individual cups which occupy considerable space and, for each cup, may take up a cross section which is greater than the total cross section of the individual cup. In order to provide the space necessary to accommodate these elements, the cup-receiving receptacles in the individual cell plates of the conveyor must be fairly widely spaced apart. As a result, there is a considerable spacing around each of the cup-receiving receptacles and hence of the cups when they are disposed at the cup-discharge station.
In conventional apparatus, the finished cups should be made available in so-called blocks of, for example, twenty cups. In order to form such cup blocks, the grippers carry the individual cups to a conveyor at which the cup block can be introduced into a cardboard box, crate or holder or lifter. To this end, the conventional apparatus can include a lifting plate for raising the cup block holder onto the undersides of the cups while they are engaged from above by the grippers in a position which is offset from the cup-removal location above the conveyor. The grippers then can release the cups and the cup block can be deposited upon a conveyor for carrying the block away.
In the cup block, it is, of course, desirable that the spacing between the cups be as small as possible, i.e. that the cup block be as compact as possible.
Consequently, between the cup-pickup location and the cup-release location, the gripper arrangement must provide for a condensation of the array of cups to the cup block.
In the prior-art system, this is accomplished as follows:
At the discharge side of the conveyor, below the last row of filled and closed cups thereof, there are provided individual but interconnected cup lifters which raise only the single transverse row of cups into the respective grippers. The lifters are raised into a position in which they lie substantially flush with the upper surface of the cell plate of the conveyor so that the elevated cups can be retained and slide upon this surface. To retain the cups during their accumulation into a condensed array, an intermediate plate is provided onto which the cups can be shifted and the cups can be held in place by individual fork-shaped centering elements.
When the cups are provided in four rows on the conveyor parallel to the direction of displacement thereof, in five working strokes, five transverse rows of cups are shifted onto the intermediate plate in five strokes. This permits the cups to be brought extremely close together. When the cups of the cup block have been fully assembled, the grippers engage the cups by the lifting thereof into engagement with the grippers. The intermediate plate thus constitutes the means for lifting the cups into the open grippers. After the intermediate plate has been lowered, the grippers are displaced into a location offset from the pickup location and the holder of the lifter or carton can be emplaced upon the cup block.
The resulting apparatus requires considerable space, is relatively expensive to construct and operate, and has not proved to be fully satisfactory.